London Olympics 2012: Decision To Snub David Beckham of Football Squad is Petty and Vindictive

You can count on England for one thing. They are the best at shooting themselves in the foot rather than at a penalty shoot out! While Roy Hodgson makkes puzzling decisions as manager of England's national team, Stuart Pearce has returned the favor as manager of Great Britain's Olympics squad by snubbing David Beckham as one of the three over-23 exceptions for the Olympic roster while simultaneously using him to promote the Games.

Both are intransigant, obstinate individulas who have won nothing at personal level and see people like Beckham with envious eyes. Whilst David Beckham has had success through outstanding ability, the Pearces of this world can only look on wishing they had that X-factor. What results is the same as with Hodgson, spiteful personal pettiness and settling of grudges at the cost of the national team.

Hodgson watched as Pirlo ran the show. Everyone from pub team managers upwards could see that we needed a change of tactics, but not Woy. Oh no. Nobody is going to tell him what to do. The result is that we are the laughing stock of football, with a manager who is second at everything, lost the dressing room at Blackburn and was sacked, leaving them bottom of the Premier League despite Walkers millions. He then went on to lose the dressing room at Liverpool and was again sacked, leaving them third from bottom.

Pearce's claim to fame is missing a penalty in an England shoot out. He was a failure at Manchester City and was eventually sacked as his side failed to score a goal in the second half of the season. He went on to coach England U-21s winning nothing.

The Olympics is a joke competition for football and should not be taken seriously. Beckham would have been a great attraction for the majority of ordinary people in this country, yet we are bedevilled by the pathetic tribal bigotry that pervades our club football. Nobody outside London cares about Olympic soccer, but it would have been pragnmatic to just let him have a cameo role. After all, we will never win it anyway.